4.1 The collaboration’s effect
According to the interview’s answer for question no.3 (What is the customer’s response to this designer-product cooperation event?), Uniqlo clerk mentioned that: The customer’s response was crazy, they were fighting for ines product like people who don’t have clothes. Yes the main target market maintained the same but there were also a lot of customers aged above our target range who came because of the price. Gap clerk mentioned that: The products were sold out immediately and there was also a lot of complaint from branch stores in other areas of Taiwan for not participating in selling the collaboration product, and yes the target market remained the same. H&M clerk mentioned that: The target market was basically the same but we didn't limit the amount of people that could line up and it ended up that the stock was not enough and only 10%
of the people in the line would be able to buy them, so we received several complaint about not making the rules clear and wasting customers time, I think that this will lower the brand image. Despite the fact that H&M clerk indicated that there were some complaints about not being able to buy the product because of the product limitation, but all three brand clerks showed that the collaboration product was sold out in a short period of time which means the effect of collaborating with a designer is positive, this is also proved by the answers for question no.4 (Do you think collaborating with famous designers will make better sales revenue than normal designers?) Uniqlo clerk: With the experience of ines collaboration and the response, Yes. I think that collaborating with a
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well-known and popular designer will definitely make better revenue because you can draw more customer attention. Gap clerk: Gap collaborated with GQ designers for four times, and I think that famous designers is definitely one key factor to impact good customer response but fitting with the image of the brand and how they promote the event also plays an important role, I don’t think the GQ designers will have an advantage collaborating with sports brand like Nike compared to pro-athletes. H&M clerk: Yes, collaborating with famous designers is like collaboration with famous brands, if you collaborate with a designer that is popular and well known in the target market group it will definitely create better chances, actually I don't think the collaboration products look really good this time but the response was still good, I feel like customers nowadays care about the brand more than the real thing, I also think collaborating with fast fashion brands will lower the image of a designer if the products weren’t as good as it should be.
All three answers for question no.4 proved that the clerks think collaborating with a suitable designers can create better chances and have a positive effect for selling the product.
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Table 2 Interview result
Uniqlo clerk Gap clerk H&M clerk Common point
Customer’s
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4.2 Marketing strategy analysis
According to the results of question no.1 (target market) Uniqlo clerk: Female around 25-35years old that are interested in fashion, because this range of age tends to buy fashion designed products with an affordable price, and the ines collaboration products are much more cheaper than the standard ines designed product. Gap clerk: The designer crew this time are all men so the target market is also on men that loves and cares about fashion, which also wants to buy fashion clothing with an affordable price.
H&M clerk: Anybody who loves fashion and loves Balmain’s design, who wants to buy Balmain’s product with a much more reasonable price. We can see that the target market is basically the same, people who care about fashion and want to buy designer level products with a lower price, making the customers feel like they are buying an expensive designer brand product with a low price is the key to attract massive buyers, the actual quality, in comparison, becomes less important.
According to the result of question no.2 (the marketing plan) Uniqlo clerk mentioned that: Saled in limited stores and limited amount of product available is the main way we promote the event, we also advertise the event on facebook fanpage and our official website . Gap clerk mentioned that: products are only available on the official website and limited stores , we also use facebook fanpage to let more customers notice this event. H&M clerk mentioned that: Products were only available in one H&M store with limited amount, so customers who were interested had to line up early, we also had several TV news report a month before the event started to draw everybody’s
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attention. The answers showed that the main way brands use to promote the event is by social media and news, and another effective marketing strategy is to limit the product amount to increase the product rareness and decrease the consumer’s thinking time before buying, and in question no.5 it showed that limit products is proved as an effective way to represent the product.
Table 3 Interview result
Uniqlo clerk Gap clerk H&M clerk Common point
Target market
Effective Effective Effective Effective
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